Partner violence, a diversion of health-care workers and people not collecting medication are huge concerns
Despite government commitments to providing HIV-prevention methods such as pre-exposure prophylaxis , Delany-Moretlwe said Covid-19 had disrupted health services and access to medication.
We should never have a gap in this quest until everyone is safely in care and on treatment, and virally suppressed.“Since the lockdown, the average percentage reduction in medicine collections for TB is 1.4% and 19.6% for HIV,” the department said. Delany-Moretlwe said there had been discussions about how to use Covid-19 community screenings to include HIV testing and home deliveries of ARVs. “These are the sorts of initiatives that need to be evaluated further to ensure our HIV programme is maintained.”Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, head of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town , said lockdown could have been a perfect time to scale up HIV testing and treatment.
The biggest worries were the limited capacity for HIV testing and treatment initiation, adherence to treatment to suppress the virus and inability to access antiretroviral treatment “due to either perceived or real lack of HIV services”.
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